WordPress is the most popular content management system (CMS). According to the website CodeInWp, WordPress powers nearly 40% of all websites worldwide. It is only natural that hackers are beginning to specifically target WordPress sites. Regardless of the type of content your site provides, you are not immune. If you do not take certain precautions, you risk having your website hacked. As with anything related to technology, you need to check the security of your website.
In this tutorial, we will share our top 10 tips for keeping your WordPress site secure.
Choose a good web host
The simplest way to secure your site is to use a hosting provider that offers multiple levels of security.
It may seem tempting to opt for a cheap hosting provider, but do not overlook the quality of your web hosting. Choose a secure hosting provider that is protected against DDoS attacks, with a WAF (firewall) and anti-spam and anti-malware solutions. Why is it so important to protect your website? Because your data could be completely erased and your URL could start being redirected to another location. .
By paying a little more for a quality host, additional layers of security are automatically added to your website. Another advantage is that by using good WordPress hosting, you can significantly speed up your WordPress site.
Although there are many hosting providers out there, we recommend Closte, WPX, Kinsta, and WPEngine. They offer numerous security features, including daily malware scans and access to 24/7/365 support. Best of all, their prices are reasonable too.
Avoid using nulled themes or extensions
Install a WordPress security plugin
Regularly checking your website for malware is a time-consuming task, and unless you regularly update your knowledge of coding practices, you may not even realise that malware has been inserted into the code. Fortunately, others have realised that not everyone is a developer and have created WordPress security plugins to help them. These types of plugins ensure the security of your site, scan for malware and monitor your site 24/7 to regularly check what is happening on your site.
Sucuri.net is an excellent security plugin for WordPress. It offers security activity auditing, file integrity checking, remote malware scanning, blacklist checking, effective security hardening, post-hacking security actions, security notifications, and even a website firewall (at an additional cost).
Use a strong password
Passwords are a very important part of website security and are unfortunately often overlooked. If you use a simple password, such as «123456», 'abc123' or 'password', you should change it immediately to avoid becoming a victim of an attack. Brute force. While this password is easy to remember, it is also extremely easy to guess. An advanced user can easily crack your password and access it without much trouble.
It is important that you use a complex password, or better yet, an automatically generated password with a variety of numbers, nonsensical letter combinations, and special characters such as % or ^.
Disable file editing
When you set up your WordPress site, your dashboard includes a code editing feature that allows you to modify your theme and plugin. You can access it by going to Appearance > Editor. You can also find the plugin editor by going to Plugins > Editor.
Once your site is live, we recommend disabling this feature. If hackers gain access to your WordPress admin panel, they can inject subtle, malicious code into your theme and plugin. Often, the code will be so subtle that you won't notice anything wrong until it's too late.
To disable the ability to modify plugins and theme files, simply paste the following code into your wp-config.php file.
define(‘DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT’, true); ;
Install the SSL certificate
Change your WP connection URL
By default, the address for logging into WordPress is «yoursite.com/wp-admin». By leaving this address as the default, you may be the target of a brute force attack aimed at cracking your username and password combination. If you allow users to register for subscription accounts, you may also receive a lot of spam. To avoid this, you can change the administrator login URL or add a security question to the registration and login page.
Pro tip: You can further protect your login page by adding a two-factor authentication plugin to your WordPress site using extensions such as Wordfence. When you try to log in, you must provide additional authentication to access your site – for example, this could be your password and an email (or text message). This is an enhanced security feature to prevent hackers from accessing your site.
Practical tip #2: You can also check which IP addresses have failed to connect most often, and then block those IP addresses.
Limit login attempts
By default, WordPress allows users to attempt to log in as many times as they wish. While this may be helpful if you frequently forget which letters are capitalised, it also leaves you open to brute force attacks.
By limiting the number of login attempts, users can try a limited number of times before being temporarily blocked. This reduces your chances of experiencing a brute force attack, as the hacker is blocked before they can complete their attack.
You can easily enable this with a WordPress plugin that limits login attempts. After installing the plugin, you can change the number of login attempts via Settings > Login Attempts Limit. If you wish to enable login attempts without a plugin, you can also do so by following tutorials on the internet.
Make inaccessible/Hide the wp-config.php and .htaccess files
Although this is an advanced process for improving your site's security, if you are serious about security, it is important to hide your site's .htaccess and wp-config.php files to prevent hackers from accessing them.
We strongly recommend that this option be implemented by experienced developers, as it is imperative to first back up your site and then proceed with caution. Any error could render your site inaccessible.
To hide the files, after backing them up, you must do two things:
First, go to your wp-config.php file and add the following code:,
<Files wp-config.php>
allow, deny
deny from all
</Files>
Similarly, you will add the following code to your .htaccess file:,
<Files .htaccess>
allow, deny
deny from all
</Files>
Although the process itself is very straightforward, it is important to ensure that you have a backup before you begin in case something goes wrong.
Update your WordPress version and plugins.
Keeping your WordPress up to date is a good practice to ensure the security of your website. With each update, developers make a few changes, often updates to security features. By keeping your CMS up to date with the latest version, you help protect yourself against pre-identified vulnerabilities and exploits that hackers can use to access your site.
It is also important to update your plugins and themes for the same reasons.
By default, WordPress automatically downloads minor updates. However, for major updates, you will need to update them directly from your WordPress admin dashboard.
Conclusion
WordPress security is one of the most essential elements of a website. If you do not maintain your WordPress security, hackers can easily attack your site. Maintaining your website's security is not difficult and can be done without spending a penny. Some of these solutions are intended for advanced users, but if you have any questions, WS Digital Consultancy can assist you in securing your website and protecting your data.
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